Behind-the-Scenes at Our Animal Care Center in Quincy

The New England Aquarium on Boston’s Central Wharf welcomes over a million visitors each year. About 10 miles south of the main plaza stands a quieter but equally important part of the Aquarium located in Quincy, Mass.: The Animal Care Center. 

The Animal Care Center is often in the news in the fall as the home of the Sea Turtle Hospital, where we rehabilitate hundreds of injured sea turtles each year, but that is just one of many essential systems and innovative initiatives led from the building. The dedicated aquarists and Animal Care staff in Quincy work year-round to raise young fish, quarantine animals—ensuring they’re healthy before they enter the Aquarium’s exhibit ecosystems—breed endangered species, care for injured animals, and more.

Take a tour of the Animal Care Center below.

Fish Nurseries: Breeding and Husbandry Programs

In our sustainable breeding program, we raise a variety of fish species from birth, such as smallmouth grunts and lookdowns. This challenging process includes carefully collecting eggs from broodstock (parents), regularly testing water parameters, countless feeds, and transferring fish to progressively larger spaces. Some fish are eventually moved to New England Aquarium exhibits when they’re big enough, while others are sent to partner aquariums. Raising fish locally allows us to study them during different life stages and reduces aquariums’ need to collect fish from the wild. 

Glassy sweepers are another fish we raise regularly because they are sensitive to handling and collection. They are a fragile species, and juveniles are smaller than a grain of rice! When raised in an aquaculture setting, they also tend to have a more relaxed temperament. Over the years, the sustainable breeding program has raised more than a dozen species of fish successfully, each one requiring nuanced care, and we continue to experiment with raising new species.

The Animal Care Center is also the home of an endangered species consortium management program. Recently, we bred two-stripe white lip cichlids, which were once found in Lake Victoria in Africa but are now extinct in the wild.

Quarantines: Keeping Ecosystems Healthy 

Any animals we didn’t raise must quarantine at the Animal Care Center before joining the Aquarium’s exhibits. This ensures new fish don’t spread diseases in our existing ecosystems. After letting new animals acclimate for a week or two, our veterinary staff gives them an entrance exam, which may include a visual welfare exam or checking skin, scales, and gills for parasites. While they’re receiving treatments, animals live in carefully thought-out tank arrangements. Determining which fish can share a space is like solving a puzzle—each species requires specific medications, water conditions, and social dynamics to thrive. After about two months of care and adjusting to water with properties that mirror their future Aquarium exhibits, vets give animals an exit exam to make sure they are disease-free before heading to their permanent homes. 

As you might imagine, given the range of species at the Aquarium, keeping up with the needs and sensitivities of every animal that needs to go through quarantine requires vast knowledge and advanced preparation. While you might not see our Quincy Center aquarists on your visit, they are some of our Aquarium heroes behind-the-scenes!

Fish Food Farm: Growing Meals Locally

A sustainable food system at the Animal Care Center helps us feed our growing fish and quarantined animals. We cultivate algae to feed copepods and rotifers—two types of zooplankton—which, in turn, are part of the diet of the baby fish. As the fish get larger, they graduate to eating baby brine shrimp and then adult brine shrimp, which are also raised in Quincy. A magnetic coating for the baby brine shrimp cysts allows us to easily separate the egg casings from the live shrimp during our harvesting process. This in-house food system supplements pellet food diets, allowing us to be more sustainable and cost-effective while enriching foods with nutrients.

Safe Spaces: Animal Wellness Retreats and Retirements

Sometimes, animals are too small to mix and mingle with the other animals in their exhibit when they first come to us. The Animal Care Center provides a safe space for them to grow to the appropriate size before we integrate them with the other animals. For instance, newly rescued animals from the Gulf Stream Orphan Project may spend some time here while they gain in size, even after quarantine.

For injured or older animals, the Center serves as a quiet retreat away from other animals in the busy ecosystems at the Aquarium’s main building. Recent animals at the Center include cownose stingrays Denise and Cocoa, who needed some R&R from the hustle and bustle of the touch tank. Mystic is a retired cownose stingray who lives permanently at the Quincy Animal Care Center. In her peaceful retirement, she gets lots of special treatment from the Animal Care Center staff, including a squid cake on her birthday every year.  

Next time you visit the New England Aquarium, keep in mind that the main building is only the tip of the iceberg of the Aquarium’s mission and impact on protecting the blue planet.